The Phoenix Spirit talked with John Magnuson, the visionary founder of Relevant Recovery, a new Recovery Community Organization (RCO), designed to train and mentor Family Life Recovery Coaches at Minnesota’s first Recovery Ranch – a space and place where individuals, families and organizations can “experience” recovery as they build greater wellbeing.
John’s life story, his national network of friends, and the power of spiritual recovery culminated in this big vision. As a young boy, John felt firsthand the traumatic and devastating impact of active addiction on the family, as his own sister was in and out of treatment centers for substance use disorders. John promised his parents he would never use drugs or alcohol. But this all changed as adolescent peer pressure introduced John to the chaotic world of drugs and alcohol, leading to daily use and two DWIs before graduating from Wayzata High School.
John masked and moderated his escalating drinking and drug use by over-achievement: as Executive Director of the Youth Leadership Development Center and as a Goodwill Ambassador to the former Soviet Union. He interned with State Senator Jim Ramstad, served as his staffer when Jim became U.S. Representative Ramstad, and became a consultant to Fortune 100 CEOs, national trade associations leaders, and global non-profits. John first admitted his alcoholism to Jim Ramstad, who cleared his busy schedule, and personally walked John into treatment at St. Mary’s Hospital/now Fairview Recovery Services, the same treatment facility Jim attended.
By working with a sponsor and being mentored by many, John acquired a decade of sobriety in 1998. (He’s now celebrated 26 years!) He accepted a position as Vice President at the Johnson Institute and moved to Washington DC. He then served the federal government as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was Vice President for the National Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependence (NCADD), and helped the Center for Aging Care Services Technologies (CAST), build national coalitions of scientists, medical staff, hospitals, nursing homes, and others to help reinvent America’s approach to aging care. In doing so, John began to see parallels between aging care and addiction care, especially when it came to coaching. While at the National Institutes of Health, John heard the leadership of a new genetics company (23 and Me), describe how they utilized coaches to help patients interpret gathered data. This intrigued John, who had recently been introduced to health coaches working in other areas of health management.
Shortly after John moved back to Minnesota, one of John’s daughters experienced a serious mental health issue that required hospitalization. Despite his deep knowledge of the issues and resources available, John and his family felt lost and imploded on the stress of the situation. John wondered, “How do families with no experience, training or resources survive?” After some soul searching, he resigned from his position as Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health (MARRCH) and dedicated himself to serving families as a Life Recovery Coach.
Fast forward to the early days of the pandemic, one day, as John drove out of town, he felt his tension lowering. He realized that he could work from anywhere, so why not buy a small hobby farm to work and entertain family and friends. In that instant… Relevant Recovery was born! John describes Relevant Recovery (RR) as a combination of three things: “First, it’s a Recovery Community Organization in the original form before peer supports were added to RCOs. Second, its’s a membership organization like AARP that advocates for and gives its members benefits. While AARP is an affinity organization dealing with retirement, Relevant Recovery’s affinity is recovery. Third, it’s a space and place like the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum where people can “experience” recovery, stroll the grounds, take classes, enjoy events, and have a lovely day.”
“Relevant Recovery is currently canvassing to identify key leaders who will move our mission forward in 2025,” said Magnuson. “Our mission has 5 key components; 1) to connect community, 2) to create spaces, places, and programs, 3) to equip and coach families, 4) to train and mentor leaders, and 5) to entertain and educate.”
Relevant Recovery’s Board met on May 6th, Jim Ramstad’s birthday, to form the organization that will offer interventions, coaching, and retreats as their primary services. They agreed to host a soft launch for the public on July 31. The date was chosen to honor Jim Ramstad’s sobriety date and recognize his leadership. The soft launch this year included speeches by U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy via video and David Wellstone in person who spoke to what remains undone 16 years after the passage of The Mental Health and Addiction Parity law. Relevant Recovery plans to continue hosting Annual Innovation Addresses on July 31 as an ongoing tribute to Jim Ramstad and his legacy work to help families dealing with addiction and mental health issues.
Relevant Recovery’s top priority is to launch a physical Recovery Ranch. This ranch will offer Minnesotans a space and place where families can be coached, leaders can be trained, and people can retreat, relax, and find connection.In addition, Relevant Recovery’s Board of Advisors, co-chaired by Robert Lindsey (Betty Ford Center/NCADD) and Michael Frisch (Cronin Home/MARRCH) has announced they are seeking interested parties to serve on their Board of Advisors. The 2025 inaugural year calendar of events includes a Great Goal Set, several days to recognize love and service, days to honor family, a Global Sojourn or retreat/mission trip to Italy, on-going Leadership Training sessions for both the public and professionals, and an annual Gratitude Gala featuring scholarships.
Besides being the umbrella organization that offers family coaching services and a full year of programming and events, Relevant Recovery’s top priority is to launch a physical Recovery Ranch. This ranch will offer Minnesotans a space and place where families can be coached, leaders can be trained, and people can retreat, relax, and find connection. Therefore, having a large, non-clinical space and place to “experience” recovery is vital. Their site selection committee has identified a 30 to 45 minute ‘Goldilocks Zone’ around the 494/694 beltway of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro area. Within this area they plan to acquire an existing farm or build from scratch.
“We’ve currently identified a potential site,” shared Magnuson. “It’s a 120-acre farm west of Minneapolis that has all our key elements; a large home that will serve as a Welcome Center/Family Retreat Center, a 20-acre organic garden with a greenhouse, a 20-acre patch of woods/trails, and some barns that will host six skills labs or learning labs. When people give up addictions, they have a bunch of time. Food is important, so we’ll offer culinary classes with recipes that don’t feature alcohol. People work things out through art, so we’ll have art, music, woodworking, leatherworking, and ironworking classes.”
Part of the “experience” they hope to create on the Recovery Ranch is connection. When people arrive at the Welcome Center, they’ll learn a little about addiction, mental health, and behavioral health issues. However, the Ranch isn’t a treatment center. It will be a 3-to-5-hour experience that isn’t clinical. If treatment is an overnight camp, the Ranch is a day camp. It will be a space where families and individuals can connect with self, community and the earth. “Community is so important to recovery,” Magnuson said, “I’m a big believer that healing takes place in community and we should be careful not to clinicalize everything in mental health and substance use disorder. One, we don’t have the professional workforce to handle the current volume of cases. And two, we can’t afford it across a lifetime continuum of care. Therefore, we should teach resilience, connection, and provide opportunities for community support through organizations such as Relevant Recovery when appropriate.”
John’s friends who have known him for over 30 years said, “Magnuson, you’re doing so awesome as a Life Recovery Coach. This is a huge project. Why do this?” John replied, “This vision is way bigger than me and I’m confident we are connected to the true power.”
It helps that most of John’s career has involved professional fundraising because this project is estimated to cost $8 million for the property, facilities, staffing, and programs. John concluded, “I’ve worked with many resource-building groups across the country with a strong reach into the recovery community. Even so, $8 million is a huge goal. Since funding is what I’ve worked on most of my career, I’m ready to go!”
Mary Berg is a retired associate professor of clinical education, a resume writer, published author, and poet. Her first poetry collection, A Mystic in the Mystery: Poems of Spirit, Seasons, and Self was released February 2024. Her website is: marybergresumewriter.com.
Last Updated on September 10, 2024